Pride Day planning muddled by SPD The second Saturday in June was etched in stone as the date for Pride Day 2005 in Spokane. On closer look, however, it appears instead to be sketched in sand. Pride Day planners now are hedging their confirmation on when the annual event will take place, laying the burden at the feet of the Spokane Police Department. SPD, they say, must approve the parade permit and has had the application on its desk for more than a month. OutSpokane, as the Pride committee bills itself (formerly Inland Northwest Pride), has proposed a parade
Lincoln Center Salutes Gay Pride 2005 NEW YORK – For the first time in its history, Lincoln Center will present an array of events saluting Gay Pride June 21-23 as part of Heritage of Pride’s Pride Week celebrations in New York City. The famed Lincoln Center will showcase acclaimed literary figures and leading entertainers, both gay and nongay, in special events and performances “to celebrate the gay community’s rich history in, and contributions to, American performing arts,” according to the Center’s press release. A special night on the Lincoln Center Plaza, Midsummer Night Swing, is designed to confirm Lincoln Center as a place where diversity flourishes.
route they say “will permit greater visibility and exposure” for the gay community. For the Police Department to reject Pride’s proposal, observers feel it would be akin to telling the Lilac Festival to move its parade to Five Mile, or rescheduling First Night to Jan. 3. Whatever the case, the police echelon handling the permit process seems bogged in processing the application with any due expediency; a case of law enforcement blue becoming bureaucratic red tape. After years of near obscurity from marching the few blocks on North Washington from Spokane Civic Theatre, OutSpokane has designed an innovative route that would marshal participants at the Rainbow Regional Community Center on Second Avenue. The parade would follow Howard Street to Main, turn west past River Park Square, take Lincoln to Spokane Falls Boulevard and proceed past City Continued on page 2
Vol. XIV, No. 3
Serving the Gay and Lesbian Community of the Inland Northwest
March 2005
North Monroe, Garland, the University District, East Sprague, South Perry and Browne’s Addition:
Gay district visionaries eye areas convenient to town by John Deen While most people in Spokane went about their business as usual, an Associated Press story in mid-January focused national attention on this “staid Eastern Washington city” as an enclave buffered by wheat fields, fruit orchards and an attitude mired in an earlier time by religious conservatives opposing a neighborhood of homes, businesses and amenities that would hold special appeal for gay residents. “A gay Mecca is not what we’d like to see Spokane marketed as,” said Penny Lancaster, director of Community Impact Spokane, identified as a network of evangelical Christians, according to the AP. “We are a family-friendly, traditional values community,” added John Talbott who, when serving as mayor in 1999, voted with the minority to op-
pose Spokane’s Human Rights Ordinance that extended equal rights protection to gay men and lesbians in housing, employment and public accommodation. Walton Mize, bishop of the Christ Holy Sanctified Church and considered by some as a spokesBonnie Aspen man for the black community, feared a gay district would “attract sexual predators who prey on gays, lead to increased crime, drug use and other social ills.” “They must be sad little souls to feel so compelled to regulate the lives of other people who don’t conform to
NY state court extends marriage equality to gays NEW YORK – New York this month censes in New York City. Lambda must decide whether to appeal a court praised the decision as “historic, well ruling in February that determined that reasoned and, above all, fair.” same-sex couples must be allowed to “This is a historic ruling that delivmarry. ers the state Constitution’s promise of New York State Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled that New York’s Domestic Relations Law, which has been used to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, violates those couples’ rights under the state constitution to due process and equal protection of the law. Ling-Cohan also Nevin Cohen, left, and Daniel Hernandez ruled that the New York city clerk was prohibited from “denyequality to all New Yorkers,” said Suing a marriage license to any couple, san Sommer, supervising attorney at solely on the ground that the two perLambda Legal and lead attorney on the sons in that couple are of the same case. “The court recognized that unsex.” less gay people can marry, they are not being treated equally under the law. The lawsuit was filed in 2004 by Same-sex couples need the protections Lambda Legal on behalf of five sameand security marriage provides, and sex couples who sought marriage li-
their beliefs,” observed one participant to a cluster of friends gathered for a Freedom to Marry Day rally in February. Media interest in Spokane didn’t die on the East Coast. The idea of Christian conservatives attempting to suppress equality in America – sweet land of liberty – lured European journalists to Spokane in late February. Fleminina Lubin of Italian Network LA-7 was curious about the influence of religious beliefs on government in the United States. In Italy, she told Stonewall News Northwest, even with a predominantly Roman Catholic population, every effort is made to maintain a separation between church and state. London’s Guardian reporter Paul Harris extended his visit by a day to allow him to cover a Spokane Public Continued on page 6
this ruling says they’re entitled to get them the same way straight couples do.” Stated Justice Ling-Cohan in her 62page ruling: “As a society, we recognize that the decision of whether and whom to marry is life-transforming. It is a unique expression of a private bond and profound love between a couple, and a life dream shared by many in our culture. It is also society’s most significant public proclamation of comContinued on page 15
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